Bangkok Boasts Longest Place Name

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, has an extraordinarily long official name. The Guiness Book of World Records lists it as the world’s longest city name. It has a reputation for being the steamy and busting metropolitan center of Thailand that never sleeps, also known as “The City of Angels.” In Thai, Bangkok is also called Krung Thep and most Thais would refer to it as such. For more formal occasion, Bangkok is also called Krungthepmahanakorn.

 In Thailand, the length of a person or place’s name, is a kind of honoring or celebrating of that person or place. Royalty in Thailand also have very lengthy names to signify their importance to the people. Although not used in everyday situations, many Thais pride themselves in their ability to recite the entire name of Bangkok without error.

The full name of Bangkok is pronounced: Krung-thep-maha-nakorn-boworn-ratana-kosin-mahintar- ayudhya-amaha-dilok-pop-nopa-ratana-rajthani-burirom-udom-rajniwes-mahasat-arn-amorn-pimarn- avatar-satit- sakattiya-visanukam.

A Bangkok wordsmith, Theppitak Karoonboonyanan who said the correct spelling (163 letters) is

Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphop
nopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharn
amornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit.

Sourced from http://www.thailandlife.com/ericshackle/placename.html 

When these phrases are roughly translated, they become a series of superlatives to describe the qualities of Bangkok:

The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.

sourced from http://www.bangkok.com/bangkok-history/longest-name.html